Enough is enough [Matthew 23]

I am just finishing reading the book of Jeremiah, he is known as the weeping prophet,his task was to minister Gods word faithfully,and this he did. At times he struggled,when you consider what he had to do,one can understand his difficulties.The Jews were a people whom God had chosen,they continually backslid, copying the nations around them,by adopting their religions,by  killing the godly.They often ignored God laws, the priests,and so called prophets,and rulers ,committed many evil's,and all the time God  was speaking to them. God would deal with them,by letting their enemies triumph over them, then they would repent ,God would forgive,and deliver them,until the next time. So it continued till it became so bad that God would act in the most severe manner,that is where Jeremiah comes in,Jeremiah continually warned the people that disaster was coming,it appears even at this late stage ,God would show mercy, if they would only forsake their backsliding ways,and turn to Him,but it was not to be. In spite of  God dealing with the northern kingdom Israel,by removing them from the land,the southern kingdom Judah continued on in their evil ways.They took comfort in the fact that they had the temple ,but as is shown in Ezekiel there was a moment when the Lords presence left the temple because of the idolatry's practises taken place in it. The temple had become but a building, and nothing would save them, as they blindly stumbled on,ignoring Gods messenger, and God word, He would act in the most severe manner,yet in His mercy a remnant would be spared,and eventually would be brought back from exile.It appears that God said enough is enough ,and so judgement fell upon a nation,who killed Gods prophets,and continually rejected His ways [CP Matthew 23]
A  prayer....../ Dear God we ask for grace and mercy to be shown to this rebellious world in Jesus name. Amen/

Secular. [ 1 John 5 v 19]

We here the word secular mentioned a lot these days,just recently a judge was quoited in a newspaper, saying that because the nation we live in is a secular society,they must change the way they judge.In other words not on the bases of being a so called Christian country,it  appears to have a validity about it,but I wonder if it has?. We live in changing times, as Christians we do need to adopt,without compromising,while the history of our country is one of deep Christian influence,things have changed. To the word secular I would add sinful,sad to say many leading church people,appear to play down this fact, and that is a problem,because whatever the status of our nation,it is the Christian who is called to be the light,a person I know was spoken to by a minister,and was told they needed light ,not darkness.The word of God tells us that men love darkness rather than light,as we view this secular nation,we see so much darkness,,in so many areas of life.It applies to religious darkness, a Christless religion is a spiritual darkness,and as to those who are secular non Christians,they are in a darkness that will only lead them into a deeper, and deeper alienation from Him who is the light of the world.
A  Prayer...../ Dear God help us to not be fooled by the word secular,help us to see the true state of mankind is darkness,help us always to walk in the light,and to point people to Your dear Jesus who is Light of the world. Amen /

God is not sentimental [2 Thessalonians 1 v 7-9]

 I do not visit my first wife's grave often ,but sometimes I do,I know she is in heaven,on a recent visit I cast my eyes over the hundreds of graves in the graveyard, words of scripture came to mind, they read like this,/For the  Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice  of the archangel,and with the trump of  God, and the dead in Christ  shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air,and so shall we ever be with the Lord  [1 Thessalonians 4 v 16-17].Now these words were written for Christians ,words of instruction and encouragement.,on the other hand the words for the unbeliever, in 2 Thessalonians 1 v 7-9 ,are words of warning to every unbelieving soul,to seek the Lord before it is to late, I wrote in a recent blog, there is a storm coming,and the only way to escape this storm is in knowing Christ as Saviour, no other way,tears will not count,works will not count,God is not a sentimentalist,He has provided a way for people to be saved,any other way is a road to a lost eternity..
A  prayer ..../ Dear God we thank You that through Christ the grave is not the end, yes there is victory in Jesus .Amen /

I am a somebody.[ 1 John 3 v1 ]

Consider all the great people in the Bible,Abraham the great people of faith,Moses the great leader,Job the great man of patience,Ruth the great ,great grandmother of David,David the great king of Israel.All these and many more we could mention where great people,also the vast number of other people from church history,George Mullier,Martin Luther ,and so on,all these could be considered outstanding Christians,people whom God used. But what about you and I?,we are it appears insignificant  in comparison to all those great people. These people were great, but God is not only the God of Abraham, He is also the God of Billy, and the God of,you can add your name to that list,we all are significant in Gods eyes,He values every one of His children equally,we are all considered precious, and important.God listens to all His children's prayers,simply because they are His children, He does not brush us aside because He favours others,no He opens His arms and hugs all His children, all, I stress all.You see every child of God  has been brought into that relationship,at a tremendous price,that price being the death of Jesus,that means everyone of His children are so precious to Him.Yes in once sense we are all nobodies ,who have become somebodies by Gods love,mercy,grace.
A  prayer...../Dear God we praise that you love us all,that we who are nobodies are now Your children whom You love, through Jesus Your son Amen./

Comfirmation. [ Jeremiah 32 ]

Jeremiah was told by God to do something that did not make sense,to purchase a piece of land from his nephew,at that time the Babylonians where besieging Jerusalem [chap32]. God had showed Jeremiah that the Babylonians would take the city and that the inhabitants would be taken into exile,why bother to buy this land?.The buying of this land was a sign,to Jeremiah and to the Jews that God would after 70 years would bring the Jews back to there land.First of all we see that the symbol of buying the land was made clear by Gods word,baptisim,the Lords table,these symbols are meaningless without Gods word,the word gives the meaning. Jeremiah had to act in faith ,he wondered about what he was asked to do[32v25],so God  put a question back to him,Jesus often did this ,and the question God spoke to Jeremiah was,/Is there anything to hard for Me?/[32v27].Jeremiah had declared in v17,/Ah Lord God.......there is nothing to hard for thee/.Now he was being asked to believe what he had spoken.As a preacher I can challenge people to believe God,but make no mistake,it does not stop there,I will have to also act in faith, and believe God.Jeremiah acted on what God had told him to do,make sure that when you are acting,it is on the bases of what God has told you,What Jeremiah was asked to do, was confirmed by his nephew  coming to him and asking him to buy the piece of land,Gideon was granted confirmation as to what he was to do. To ask for confirmation before we act is often a Biblical principal,if it is of God then the door will open,the need will be met.
A  prayer..../Dear God confirm thy will to us and then help us to move in faith ,and to trust in You in Jesus name Amen/

Follow in their footsteps. [Hebrews 11]

So the storm has arrived,well we were warned,we did our best to secure things down,but there was only so much one can do. We have had so far a fence blown down,hopefully that is the only damage we will have,on the news we see that a young 14yr boy has been drowned.The life boat has been out searching for him,those who man those lifeboats are very brave,I remember the story of Grace Darling who with her father rescued seamen who where in danger of drowning.Some animals have received medals for their acts of bravery,pigeons played a big part in the ist and 2nd world wars.The  entertainment industry have invented super heroes,like superman,batman,they were pictured as saving the world. John Macarthur has written a book called, Twelve Unlikely Heroes/. they are people from the Bible. John Macarthur writes,/The great cloud of witnesses,the human heroes of Scripture point us to someone beyond themselves.  He is the one to whom they continually looked in faith,and on whom they constantly depended/. I can think of some modern day heroes ,here is a few of their  names Shamin Lahout,Behnam Irani,Augustine Ashiq Kingri Masih,Goa Zhisheng , Filep Karma. These heroes and many more like them,are serving prison sentences ,for being Christians,truly of whom the world is not worthy,let us thank God for them,and let us be encouraged to  follow in their footsteps,we like them can be heroes.
A  prayer...../ Dear God help us  to be faithful to our Saviour ,in our walk, and in our talk ,we ask this in Jesus name. Amen/

There is a storm coming. [John 3 v16 ]

We have been warned,there is a storm coming ,strong winds and rain, when the forces of nature take over there is not much one can do.Such events are recorded in the Bible when God used the forces of  nature to bring judgement upon those who He saw fit to judge. Consider the different judgements,the first being the flood Genesis 6-8,next we have was Sodom and Gomorrah [Gen 19],which God destroyed by fire.It would be an interesting study,to consider how many times God used nature to bring Judgement upon people.But let us consider, those words there is a storm coming,now what I am going to say will not be acceptable to certain people,why?. Well for some the fact that a God of  love,would judge people appears contradictory,there was famous scholar called C.H. Dodd, who could not accept this.Now he did something no true scholar should ever do ,he let his rational thinking take over so when it came to translating the word propitiation,he changed it to expiation,seemingly he was not even pleases with that also..Now it is D. A. Carson who writes,/  Propitiation refers to satisfying wrath, Expiation refers to cancelling sin/. You see without the wrath of God being poured out on Christ for our sin[ 1 John 4 v10],our sin could never have been cancelled. And if that had not happened all that would await every human being,would be the wrath of God. For those who have never trusted Christ ,there is a storm coming,just as sure as it came upon Sodom and Gomorrah,only it will be far worse,for it will know no ending.
A  prayer..../Dear God we ask that You would help us to see the importance,of trusting Jesus,in the light of the storm that is coming upon this world, in Jesus  name Amen /